A Bit of Vermont in Portland

It has been our desire to be a kind of “Third Place” (see Ray Oldenberg’s “The Great Good Place”) to our customers and neighbors and we feel this location gives us the perfect opportunity to be just that to a wide range of Portlanders.” - Oven builder Matt Wilson

Word is just in that American Flatbread, a Vermont-based restaurant chain, is coming to Portland.

I visited their outpost on a trip to Burlington, Vermont, (photo, top) a couple of years ago and wrote: "Basically a pizza parlor and pub, they're dedicated to local, natural ingredients for the flatbread pizzas they make in the wood-fired oven that sits front and center in the dining room. Comparable to our temples of woodfire like Ken's or Nostrana, with Vermont microbrews featured prominently on the beverage menu, this is a place I could get comfortable going to."

The press release on their website announcing the news says that they've leased space in the General Automotive Building in the North Park Blocks, at 411 NW Park, that will be the first LEED Platinum-certified renovation in downtown Portland. It's the third expansion for the company, the first on the west coast, and will include "a craft brewing operation."

The company put out a call in early December for volunteers to help build the mud-and-stone oven, and they will also have a portable oven that will travel to various events around town. You can see a slide show of the oven-building process on their website.

Photos of Portland oven builders from American Flatbread.